


Temporary Fix

by GingerSpirits



Category: Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Best Friends, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fraternities & Sororities, Friends to Lovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:47:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24744076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GingerSpirits/pseuds/GingerSpirits
Summary: When your ex-boyfriend starts dating the girl you hate the only good way to cope is by fake-dating your best friend...right?ORRoy broke up with Anne and starts dating Winifred. Anne is sad and jealous, and Gilbert comes up with a very bad idea.-Inspired by Temporary Fix by One Direction
Relationships: Gilbert Blythe & Anne Shirley, Gilbert Blythe/Anne Shirley, Gilbert Blythe/Winifred Rose, Royal "Roy" Gardner/Anne Shirley
Comments: 21
Kudos: 117





	1. Prologue

Her second year of college and Anne Cuthbert was already part of the ‘monarchy’ in her sorority, ΓΨΑ (Gamma Psi Alpha), as the activity planner. The merit is not only hers though. Anne and her friends had created –essentially- the best “politic party” that presented to the elections this year; everyone knew they were going to win. She did not like everyone in her party, but she had to make some sacrifices if she wanted to win.

Her party was made of five girls, including her. Organized in the following list from the meanest to the nicest one, according to Anne, of course.

  1. Winifred Rose, president. She is a Regina George wannabe, and the meanest girl -more like a bitch- Anne has ever met. In terms of appearance, she is gorgeous, blonde, blue eyes, the whitest teeth ever and she had the body of a Greek goddess. According to the guys in ΛΨ (Lamda Psi), Winifred is the hottest chick ever, some even call her “the best fuck they have ever had” (ew).
  2. Josie Pye, vice-president. The mean girl’s best friend, she does not have much personality besides that. She also looks a lot like Winifred, except Josie is taller and has a lot more boobs. Anne likes her sometimes when she is alone; it seems as if Josie’s personality completely changes when she’s with Winifred.
  3. Ruby Gillis, the freshman. She is the youngest; each party has to have a first-year student, that way they do not feel left out. She is also a blond with blue eyes, but she is nice and very sweet. Anne liked her even though she can be a little…naïve sometimes. Ruby already likes –or loves, as she said- the president of the party that won in ΛΨ this year (the members of the said party are going to be introduced later on).
  4. Anne Cuthbert, activity planner, creator of this list. She has a very good imagination and she is very creative, perfect at the job assigned –more like the one she chose-. She has red hair and a lot of freckles, and the guys in ΛΨ also consider her one of the hottest chicks, but none of them –except one in particular- can say she is “the best fuck they have ever had”.
  5. Diana Barry, treasurer. The best friend ever, Anne’s best friend. They met in their first year of kindergarten and they have been best friends ever since. She was the one to convince Anne to form a party with the Regina George wannabe and her minion. Diana sees the good in people, Anne loves that about her, but sometimes all that goodness can blind her and she cannot see that two of the three blondes are such hypocrites. She has beautiful raven hair and green eyes –finally someone different, besides Anne herself-.



Anne’s sorority had an ally, ΛΨ, the fraternity across the street. It was very uncommon to see an association between a Sorority and a Fraternity in the University of Toronto, but this association goes back many years before the current members were even born. As promised before, next you are going to see another list, also made by Anne Cuthbert, also organized by the meanest to the nicest one.

  1. Royal Gardner, vice-president. Also known as… Anne’s ex. Not much to say about him aside from being the definition of ‘ew’. He is the only boy who could call Anne “his best fuck”. Not that Anne knows this, but he does not call her that. He is tall and…blonde –Anne was starting to hate that hair color- with curly hair.
  2. Charlie Sloane, freshman. He is in this position because Anne only talked to him once and it was when he was introducing himself –he is nice-.
  3. Moody Spurgeon, activity planner. Anne likes him –as a friend- they have to spend a lot of time together to, as you guessed, plan activities in which their houses participate and collaborate with each other. Moody is one of Curly’s best friends and by association, Anne considers him one of her closest friends too.
  4. Cole Mckenzie, treasurer. One of Anne’s best friend, he is also very gay and living the gay dream living in a house full of boys, but, he openly admitted that the only boy he could be sexually attracted to, is certain curly-haired boy that is going to be mentioned soon. He has blonde hair and, according to other gays he has dated, he looks too straight to be gay –Cole took that as an insult because “those frat guys are rubbing off on me”, ironic considering he is a frat guy-. Anne met him when she was around 15 years old when she went with Diana to visit her aunt, Josephine Barry. Cole was adopted by Aunt Jo, as they call her when he was 7.
  5. Gilbert Blythe, president. The most annoying guy Anne has ever met. Also, her best friend. Anne and Gilbert are “cousins” too, even though they do not consider each other family because they only met a year ago when Anne was a freshman and Gilbert a sophomore (but we are not going to talk about that right now). He has curly brown hair - Anne likes to call him ‘curls’ or ‘curly’, depending on her mood- and hazel eyes. He is also the biggest fuckboy ever (again, more on that later).



Anne was sure this was going to be the best year of her life so far and no Royal Gardner, Winifred Rose, or Josie Pye was going to ruin this year for her.

Or will they?


	2. Chapter 2

It was not uncommon to see a boy every now and then walking around the ΓΨΑ house in the mornings. There were no rules against bringing partners to sleep at night. But what Anne did not expect to see that morning was her ex-boyfriend walking out of the president’s room with his jacket in his hand and messy hair. It was not the best thing to see in the early hours of the morning, even less considering it had only been four weeks since they broke up.

Everyone knew Roy and Anne dated, not for long, but they dated. Anne had a rough few weeks at the end of the summer; Matthew, her adoptive father, fell and broke his knee while he was working on their farm, he had to be in bed for a few weeks, resting, so Anne had to help her brother Jerry, also adopted, on the farm a lot more than what she used to. She did not have as much time to be with Roy during that time and eventually, he got tired and broke up with her.

**_“You’re ignoring me!”_ ** _Roy argued._

**_“I’m not ignoring you, Royal,”_ ** _Anne responded hotly, **“My father is in the hospital!”**_

**_“He’s not even your real father!”_ **

**_“He is my father, he raised me”_ **

**_“Whatever, I don’t want to do this anymore,”_ ** _Roy said, waving his hand at her as if he was trying to dismiss her._

**_“What is that supposed to mean?”_ ** _Anne murmured._

**_“What do you think it means?”_ **

Her friends were there to pick up the little pieces of her heart and tried to make her feel better, even though they really wanted to tell her “I told you so”. When they first started dating, none of her friends were fans of Roy, and in the end, they hated him even more. Roy was not the nicest person to be around if you were not Anne, he was very two-faced; he made Anne fall for his cute side, the charming one, the one any girl would want as a boyfriend, and he would sometimes use that side with her friends, mostly when she was there, but in reality, he was an asshole.

_How could I be so blind?_ Anne thought after he broke up with her. She does not miss him anymore; she just misses the idea of him. She misses the Roy that first approached her last –academic- year at a party at ΛΨ. He had offered her a drink, then he asked her to dance and he did not try to fuck her that same night, which Anne thought was very gentlemanly of him. They went out a couple of times and then they started dating. It was not a surprise he broke up with her after not spending that much time together, it was really difficult to see her alone unless she was in class, Roy was always around. He was very possessive and jealous, mostly of Gilbert.

Gilbert did not like Roy, at all, but for some reason, he was well-liked in their fraternity. That is the only reason why Gilbert agreed that Roy should be his vice-president; he knew Roy could help them win. Anne and Gilbert were very close friends. Even though at the beginning he did not make the best impression with her –calling a cute girl like a vegetable was apparently a good move on his part-, she eventually started liking him more, after he apologized of course, and now they were best friends. Also, they were “cousins”, even though they only met a year ago and they only found out they were “cousins” when Gilbert went to visit Anne in the hospital.

**_“Hi,”_ ** _Gilbert said, **“How is he?”**_

**_“He just woke up”_ ** _Anne responded, **“Want to meet him?”**_

**_“You sure?”_ **

**_“It’s about time, he’s met Cole and Diana, you’re not officially a friend until you meet him,”_ ** _She said, matter-of-factly. He just laughed and gestured for her to lead the way. Anne knocked softly and waited for the ‘come in’ that a boy in the room said, **“Matthew? Hi, this is my friend, Gilbert Blythe”**_

_Matthew started to cough and Gilbert started to think that he did not even get to say a word and the man already hated him. **“Gilbert Blythe?”** he choked out after a while. **“John’s son?”**_

**_“You know my father?”_ ** _He frowned._

**_“You’ve grown so much”_ ** _Matthew beamed at him._

**_“You know me?”_ **

**_“Don’t you remember me?”_ **

**_“I’m sorry”_ ** _Gilbert shook his head._

**_“Well, it makes sense, you were a little boy last time I saw you”_ ** _Matthew extended his hand to him, **“Matthew Cuthbert, I’m your uncle”**_

**_“What the f-”_ ** _Anne breathed, moving to sit on the little couch in the room, next to Jerry._

**_“Uncle?”_ **

**_“Well, not your uncle, per se, Marilla, John and I met in college. I haven’t seen him since she died”_ ** _Gilbert’s eyes started to water a little at the mention of his deceased mother. He barely remembers her, she died when he was four years old, and there are not many pictures of her around the house. John, Gilbert’s father, did not take well losing his lover, he had kept in boxes everything that belonged to her, except for a few pictures he gave to Gilbert when he started to ask questions, and he had cut ties with her side of the family. John moved them to Charlottetown._

That day, Gilbert ran out of the room and drove to his house. He believed Matthew immediately, how else a random man would know who he was and his parents’ names, not even Anne knew that. He confronted his father when he got home and John admitted everything.

**_“It was too painful,”_ ** _John said. **“Matthew- us three we- we were always together. He reminded me so much of her”**_

Gilbert forgave him…eventually. He started to go to Anne’s house more, most of the time to talk to Matthew about his mother since his father still kept that information from him. At least he had let him go through Marilla’s boxes. Going through one of the boxes, he found a picture of him when he was four, dated around two weeks before Marilla died, he was in a park, smiling to the camera and his arm around a little girl with red hair, who was also smiling brightly to the camera.

* * *

**Curls**

Red

I just saw Roy coming out of your house

Did you get back together?

**AnnE**

No

He was with the witch

**Curls**

You good?

**AnnE**

I will be

**Curls**

Wanna watch one of those awful movies you like so much?

To forget about him for a while

**AnnE**

Yes

And I wouldn’t mind some of those delicious brownies you make

**Curls**

:|

**AnnE**

Pretty please?

**Curls**

FINE.

**AnnE**

I

LOVE

YOU

**Curls**

Ik

Gilbert was a terrific cook. Anne was very surprised when she found out; it was very sexist of her to assume he did not know how to cook, but she never doubted his cooking skills after he made her breakfast and a cake for her birthday. Her friends agreed to cook together for her, but when Gilbert saw what Cole and Diana were trying to do with the eggs, he banned them from the kitchen. For some reason he still was trying to figure out, he wanted everything for Anne to be perfect if she was going to get home-made breakfast and a cake for her birthday, he was going to make sure they were the best breakfast and cake she has ever had, and, much to Anne’s annoyance, they were.

He also liked watching stupid movies with her, even though he would never admit that to her. She was happily watching them, and if Anne was happy, he was too. Gilbert made the brownies she had requested, extra-chocolaty to fix a broken heart, and crossed the street to the ΓΨΑ house. He had been there many times, Gilbert practically fucked every girl in the house, except for Anne and the freshmen –it’s only the second week of this academic year so he has not met them yet-. He knew where they had their spare key hidden under a pot next to the door; he let himself in and went straight to Anne’s room. The girls around the house were also used to seeing him, so they did not question anything when they saw him with a little plate of brownies walking upstairs, they just smiled when he waved casually to them and kept his course.

Anne was reading a book when he got in. She scolded him as usual because he did not knock before coming in but he just ignored her, settling the plate on her night-stand and taking the picture he had found from his backpack.

**“Look,”** Gilbert said, showing her the picture.

**“Hey,”** Anne grabbed it, **“That’s me. Where did you found this? I haven’t seen this before and I have no idea who this is”**

**“It’s me”**

**“Sure”**

**“Seriously, look at the back”**

_Anne and Gilbert, April 3 rd, 2005_

**“NO FUCKING WAY, GILBERT BLYTHE”** Anne swatted his arm.

**“Ouch, why did you do that for?”** He said, rubbing his arm.

**“What the- if this was a romantic comedy or something, this would be the cutest thing ever”**

**“Who says it’s not a romantic comedy?”** He replied, wiggling his brows.

_He’s such a flirt_

**“I say so”** She said, and he did his gaze. **“You know that doesn’t work with me”**

**“And that’s impressive, not many girls can… resist me”** he sighs, laying his head on her pillow. 

The first time they met, Gilbert tried to flirt with her. Anne was not impressed with his moves, she had seen them before. After she rejected him politely, he did not leave, but he was not rude or intrusive like other dudes, he gave her space –he took a few steps back- and Anne was starting to like him, but then he had to call her names, specifically ‘carrots’, and she just walked away. She had promised Matthew she was going to control her temper, even though she really wanted to hit him for calling her out in one of her biggest insecurities. Gilbert followed her, of course, because she had walked away in the middle of a conversation, she turned to look at him and said: **_“Next time you try to hit on a girl, try not to insult her”_**. He stood there and watched her go, he did not understand what she meant, but then Cole, who was her friend, explained to him what he had done wrong and the next day he went to her house and apologized. Anne accepted his apology, but Gilbert was not considered one of her friends at the time. He earned that position slowly over time, and now they are best friends.

**“You’re such a fuckboy”** She fake gagged, **“I don’t even know what all those girls see in you”**

**“Well, my eyes, my smile, my hair. Also, I’ve gotten quite a lot of compliments about my ass and my… you know”** he winked.

**“I don’t want to know about your sex life, thank you very much”**

**“It’s quite-”**

**“I said I didn’t want to know”** Gilbert laughed and Anne fake gagged again. **“Anyway… can I keep the picture?”**

**“Of course…”** Anne started to smile, **“Not. It’s mine, red”**

**“Pretty please?”** She begged, putting her puppy eyes that always made her get her way.

**“I want it too”**

**“Then a copy”**

He sighs, **“Fine, but I’ll make it. I don’t trust this picture with you”**

**“I’m offended, Gilbert Blythe. I am very trustworthy”**

**“A mess, that’s what you are”**

**“That too, but trustworthy either way”**

They started watching To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, Anne’s choice, of course. To Gilbert’s surprise, he was actually enjoying the movie. Lara Jean reminded him of a certain redhead he really liked, and the plot with the letters was really entertaining too.

**“This is stupid,”** Anne said and Gilbert put the back of his hand on her forehead, **“What the fuck are you doing?”**

**“Who are you and what did you do with my Anne?”** he said with a worried tone.

**“What? I just think it's stupid this whole… contract thing,”** she shrugged, **“what if someone finds it?”**

**“I mean, you do have a point”** he nodded, **“but you like to have everything on writing too, so don’t say you wouldn’t do something like that too”**

**“I wouldn’t… I wouldn’t even get myself in a situation like that. It’s so obvious they’re going to fall in love with each other, I mean, she already is kind of in love with him”** She argued, **“She already wrote him a love letter!!”**

Gilbert laughed, **“Relax, red. It’s just a movie. Stuff like that doesn’t happen in real life”** Anne sighed and cuddled closer to him, putting her head on his shoulder. Gilbert moved his arm and put it around her. Best friends cuddle. Also, Anne loves cuddles.

* * *

The first meeting of the two houses was going to start in a few minutes. They had these meetings every twice a month, to discuss different issues concerning the houses. It was very uncommon to see an association between a Sorority and a Fraternity in the University of Toronto, but this association goes back many years before the current members were even born. They had a lot of advantages, for example, every time they planned a charity event or any type of event to collect money, they made around 50% more than the other three houses would make combined, but of course, they were some drawbacks too. Sometimes it was difficult for them to agree… in a lot of things: budget for each house each month, locations for the events, cleaning after the events, and how many girls from ΓΨΑ is Gilbert going to sleep with until he finally has a girlfriend (that particular subject was brought by a certain Moody Spurgeon out of nowhere).

This meeting was being held at ΓΨΑ. Anne, Diana, and Ruby went earlier than most to organize the designated room for the meeting, the other two members of the party were ‘too busy’ to help clean the room. At 5 pm sharp, the boys from ΛΨ arrived and only two minutes later Winifred and Josie arrived too.

**“We have a few topics to discuss”** Winifred started, **“First, next week we have that presentation thing”**

**“Selection Day,”** Gilbert said.

**“Yes, that”** She responded, **“We need to be ready. We have to attract as many freshmen as possible. We did not have many from early admission, us at least”**

**“We have around 15 spots available”** Cole responded.

**“Same here,”** Diana said, checking the papers on her hands.

**“You have to accept everyone who wants to join though and if there are too many people then we do as we used to do: first, select the five that need to be here the most and then we raffle the others, you have to stop being a bitch to those who want to join”** Gilbert argued. Winifred had barely said anything and he was already annoyed with her.

**“Blythe-”** Roy warned. He turned to look at him, confused.

**“It’s ok, babe”** She put a hand on his shoulder. Gilbert shifted on his seat, looking discreetly at Anne at the other side of the room; she was writing something in her notes, trying to play it cool. **“Gilbert, we have to keep the standards up. We can’t just accept anyone”**

**“I have to agree with Gilbert on this one,”** Diana said, **“People don’t want to be in a place where they judge you for the way you look. This is supposed to be your college family, and if they don’t feel like they’d be… liked, secure here, they won’t want to join us”** Gilbert hummed.

**“We’ll keep that in mind for this year. Thanks for your suggestions”**

**“It’s not a suggestion, Winifred,”** He said, **“This is a board, and we vote. We already agreed we would accept everyone. Of course, if they don’t follow our rules they’d have to go, but at first, everyone’s accepted”**

**“Clearly everyone’s accepted here”** Roy mumbled.

**“Royal, if you have a problem with anyone from** **ΛΨ** **or** **ΓΨΑ** **, I suggest you that you either forget about it or find another frat to join”** Cole said, giving him a tight-lipped smile. **“Now, the second topic we have to discuss,”** he said before Roy could respond, **“freshmen week, it’s in two weeks and starts on Monday”**

**“Exactly,”** Anne chimed in, **“Ruby and Charlie, you’re in charge of them, you’re like the… superior freshmen. You have to listen to them, that’s very important; you have to come to us, any of us, if they feel we’re being too hard on them with the hazing”**

**“Last year they weren’t any complains”** Moody added, **“and we hope this year we stay that way. Charlie, obviously you report to us but if it’s something very important and for some reason, you can’t find us, you can come to the girls and talk to them. Same goes for you, Ruby”** he smiled at the blonde.

**“Alright, alright,”** Roy said, **“Let’s get to the good part then… the party”**

**“Well, Moody and I-”** Anne started but Roy interrupted her.

**“Moody? What have you thought?”**

**“Uh…”** He looked at Anne and she just shrugged, **“It’s going to be at** **ΛΨ** **because it was here last year so that’s only fair, we don’t have a theme yet, we were going to discuss it this week”**

**“Anne,”** Gilbert said, **“Do you have any options for the theme?”**

**“Well,”** She started, smiling, silently thanking Gilbert for adding her into the conversation. **“We have Hawaiian, like a luau or something like that, a costume party, which is pretty common but it could be fun, and a neon party, that’s the one we’re inclining to the most since is cheaper but it’s also a bit messy”**

**“Messy?”** Josie asked –oh right, she is here too-.

**“We would use neon paint to… well, paint, on us. I also said it could be cool to just throw some paint to people”** Moody said.

**“Obviously, non-toxic paint”** Anne added, **“We already saw some prices and it’s the cheapest option”**

**“Cole and I were seeing the budget we have for the party,”** Diana said, **“and it’s not the biggest, but we’ve seen worst”**

**“We think a car wash to collect some money would be enough”** Cole informed. **“We know those are quite successful for us…Gilbert”** he added fake coughing.

Anne snorted, making Gilbert turn his attention to her, he winked at her before adding, **“I think that’s all we had to discuss today, right?”**

**“I think so,”** Diana said, turning to look at Anne, who nodded. **“Yep, that’s all”**

**“Well then,”** Gilbert sighed, standing up. **“See you, guys. Red, can I talk to you for a sec?”**

**“Sure”** Anne smiled.

* * *

Anne knew what he was going to say, she knew him too well. She also knew her other two friends. Not long after Gilbert followed her to her room on the third floor, Cole and Diana came to her room too.

**“Oh, my God, they’re dating”** Cole gasped, closing the door behind them, **“When did this happen?”**

Cole and Diana had not seen Roy that morning, and Anne did not tell them anything. They would start worrying about her and she did not want that. She would not even have told Gilbert, but she could not lie to him when he asked. Anne was not lying to Diana and Cole; she was just keeping information from them. As expected, they started worrying once Gilbert told them what happened.

**“I can’t believe they’re dating”** Gilbert shook his head, **“Ugh, his standards said”** he whistles, mimicking the sound of a plane going down.

**“You dated her”** Cole said, looking at him confused.

**“I didn’t date her… we just fucked regularly”**

**“But you were exclusive”** Diana added.

**“Not on my part at least… how do you even know about this?”**

**“She likes to brag,”** Anne said, **“She spent a week saying how she was ‘fucking Gilbert Blythe’,”** She ended, sighing dramatically and imitating Winifred’s voice.

**“She disgusts me, really”** Gilbert spat, rubbing his temples. **“If I could change the past, I would”**

**“Why did she do that it was so wrong?”** Diana asked.

**“She’s super possessive and we weren’t even dating, she went through my phone, for fuck’s sake”** He groaned, covering his face with one of Anne’s pillows. **“She even tried to block Anne’s phone once”**

**“Why would she want to do that?”**

**“She’s jealous of you”** He explained, **“She thinks you I would dump her for you, which I would, I did. I never told her a wanted a relationship with her, I don’t know why she was being so possessive”**

**“Well, at least we know one of the things they have in common…”** Anne started, waiting to see if the others would catch up. **“They’re both possessive and jealous as fuck”**

* * *

It was Selection Day and that meant having to spend an entire day putting up with Winifred and Josie. ΓΨΑ’s table was next to ΛΨ’s, which meant she was also going to see Roy there. It was difficult to see Winifred and Roy together; Anne wanted the earth to swallow her whole so she would not have to see them. At least her friends were there too; they saw her discomfort and turned on their ‘protective mode’. During lunch-break, Gilbert sat next to her and put his arm on the back of her chair protectively. They were very comfortable around each other so it was not unusual to see them that way. He received a few deathly glares from both Winifred and Roy, but he just ignored them.

The houses got a lot more applications than expected. The presidents of the houses are the ones supposed to select the first five, but Anne and Diana managed to take that responsibility from Winifred. They knew she was going to choose the hottest girls and not the ones who actually needed it. To their favor, Winifred did not want to go through the process of reading every single one of the application sheets, so it was easy for them to convince her.

It took them around two hours to come to a conclusion. Every girl they chose had some sort of financial need and being part of ΓΨΑ would help them. The members of ΓΨΑ and ΛΨ did not have to pay for their membership, their money came from the university and the events they held to collect money. Just when Diana was about to leave Anne’s room, there was a knock on the door.

**“Come in!”** Anne called. Gilbert opened the door slowly and came into the room. **“Wow, I didn’t know you knew how to knock”** she teased.

**“Very funny”** He faked a laugh, **“I knew you were here with Di here, I didn’t want to interrupt anything…”**

**“We were selecting the new girls, Gilbert”** She furrowed her brows.

**“But maybe… you decided to do something else after that”** He put his hands up defensively, **“I’m not judging”**

**“As much as I love to see the end of this conversation I have to go, Fred’s waiting for me,”** Diana said and left the room after they said their goodbyes.

**“You’re so disgusting”** Anne shook her head, **“and annoying”**

**“Well, I came here with some cookies I baked this afternoon,”** He said, showing the little paper bag he had in his hand. **“and I was willing to watch any stupid movie you wanted, but if I’m disgusting and annoying, I think I should just…go, I don’t want to be where I’m not wanted”** he started to walk slowly towards the door with no real intention of going out.

**“Wait-”** She ran to him and jumped on his back, **“Please don’t go”**

**“GET OFF OF ME, YOU WEIRDO”** He exclaimed, laughing and trying to shake her off.

**“Only if you stay,”** She bargained.

Gilbert sighed, **“That was all theatrics, red. I wasn’t going anywhere”** Anne hummed content and settled herself better on his back, snaking her legs around his waist. **“So, get off?”**

**“No, I’m comfortable here”** She hummed, **“And you said you weren’t leaving so… take me to my bed, servant”** she realized the double meaning of her words and quickly added, **“and obviously, not the way you think”** He only laughed, walking to her bed and throwing her there. There was another knock on the door, **“Come in!”**

**“Oh, sorry,”** Winifred said, **“I didn’t know you had company, I just came to see if you’d finished with the applications, but I guess you’re busy so I’ll talk to you later”** She went out of the room, her eye-roll was not so subtle, and just then Anne noticed the position Winifred had found her in. She was lying on her bed with her legs opened and Gilbert was standing next to the bed and between her legs, his hair and clothes messy from when Anne jumped on his back.

**“She’s jealous,”** Anne laughed.

**“Obviously, she’s always been jealous of you”**

**“No, I mean. Look at us, if I didn’t know us, I’d think we’re about to have sex”** She said, gesturing between them. Gilbert laughed and Anne started to overthink everything, as usual. **“Ugh, I hate her so much. Why did Roy have to go out with her of all people?”**

**“I know…”** he sighed, sitting next to her on the bed.

**“She must be enjoying this so much”** Anne groaned, **“She must be all ‘I’m fucking Royal Gardner’, just like she did when it was you. I hate her, I hate her and Roy too, and now I have to see them… being all coupley and touchy around me. I hate it so much”** This was the first time Anne told someone how she really felt, and she actually did not mean to do it, it just… came out. She always told their friends she was ‘fine’ and that she ‘doesn’t care’, but know she had let it all out with Gilbert there.

**“Is there any way I could help… to make you feel better?”** Gilbert asked carefully.

**“Unless you can find me a boyfriend, I don’t think there’s much you can do”**

_Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry._

**“Anne,”** he murmured, grabbing her hand. “ **Please, don’t cry. He’s really not worth it… I’ll date you”**

**“What?”**

**“I’ll be your Peter K.”** He said. “ **We are best friends and you didn’t write a love letter. Our feelings won’t be hurt when we ‘break up’, and I’m sure Winnie and Roy would be super jealous. You already said Roy was jealous of me and you know Winnie is jealous of you too. It’s perfect”**

**“No, it isn’t. We can’t fake-date”**

**“Why not?”**

**“Because…”** Anne sighed, **“What would you get out of this?”**

**“Not seeing you cry over some asshole”** He responded, **“It’s really awful seeing you cry, red”**

**“But you wouldn’t… you can’t fuck anyone if we do this”**

**“I don’t care. It’s not like I’m some sex-addict, Anne”** He laughed, **“Besides, there are other ways I can get release”**

**“Gil, I can’t ask you to do this for me”**

**“You’re not asking, I offered”** He squeezed her hand.

**“I don’t know, Gil…”** It was a stupid idea, it truly was, and she wanted to do it either way. Roy was very jealous and possessive, but at the time she only saw as ‘he loves me and he doesn’t want to lose me’. Anne started to remember every time she and Roy had a fight about a boy who even dared to talk to her, he did not mind Cole talking to her, but every time she talked to Gilbert he would be furious, she lost count of the amount of time she had to tell him Gilbert was just a friend and if they started to fake date, Roy would lose it –probably-.

**“Come on say yes. It’ll be fun. Don’t you want to see two of the people you hate the most super angry and jealous?”**

**“I do…”** She stood up, **“Ok, fine. How are we doing this?”**


	3. Chapter 3

This was a stupid plan. Maybe the stupidest plan either of them had ever came up with, but it was simple and –hopefully- effective.

**“Ok, fine. How are we doing this?”**

They decided to build it up slowly; their ‘romance’ was going to grow like a plant. They were going to plant little seeds for a few days until they finally tell everyone they are dating after the neon party at ΛΨ. They were not going to say they started dating a few months or weeks before, that would not make any sense, considering Gilbert had hooked up with a few girls in the last month.

**“Let’s start acting like a couple. When people ask us if we’re dating we say no, but we make it clear that we hope we were. We can’t say we’ve been dating, people would not believe that; let’s just make them… see? How we’re falling for each other until one day we ‘make it official’. I’ll start coming more and maybe we could go out for a ride and let people think we’re on a date or something. We could… tell each other compliments in public so people see we’re interested. At the neon party, we make everyone believe we hooked up and then… we’re dating”** Gilbert explained, it was simple enough and credible enough. He clearly gave it a lot of thought. Obviously people would not believe they started dating out of nowhere, everyone knew they were best friends and that they were very comfortable around each other. They needed to make a slow-but-not-so-slow transition from best friends to lovers so people would believe it.

* * *

**Curls**

Tomorrow.

**AnnE**

Ready?

**Curls**

Born ready baby

**AnnE**

You’re so annoying

**Curls**

HEY

I’m your boyfriend BE NICE TO ME WOMAN

**AnnE**

We’re not dating yet

I can back out still

And call me woman one more time Gilbert Blythe

I DARE YOU

**Curls**

No thanks

I’m good

**AnnE**

Good boy

* * *

**“IT’S HAZING TIME!”** Roy shouted, standing on the hallway of the first floor.

It is the first day of the hazing, as well as the first day of class. It was pretty early in the morning, 4am to be exact; Roy was in charge of waking up the boys, he put up music the loudest the speakers could sound. Much to Roy’s dislike, Cole chose the song, so the boys were waking up to the beautiful voice of Harry Styles –as Cole said- singing his song Watermelon Sugar.

**“WAKE UP, LITTLE WATERMELONS!”** Cole shouted.

**“What the fuck, Cole?”** Moody asked, laughing, and he shrugged.

**“GILBERT! BRING THE WATERMELONS! THESE FUCKERS DON’T WANT TO GET UP!”** Roy shouted.

**“Watermelons?”** Charlie whisper-shouted, **“You didn’t say anything about throwing watermelons”**

**“Shut up, Charlie”**

**“He’s joking, just to make them get up… I hope”** Moody explained, his voice low.

**“COMING!”** Gilbert shouted. The freshmen started to get up their beds when they heard him. Roy laughed when he saw his plan worked; they obviously were not going to throw watermelons at them.

**“GET DRESSED! AND USE SPORTS CLOTHES, YOU’RE GOING TO RUN SOME LAPS!”**

**“At 4 in the morning?!”** someone complained.

**“Yes, dumbass, at four in the morning, and for that comment, you earned yourself 30 more minutes for this afternoon’s activity, congratulations!”** Roy responded.

**“OK, MOVE!”** Gilbert shouted this time, **“YOU HAVE TWENTY MINUTES TO GET DRESSED AND TO EAT SOMETHING BEFORE YOU HAVE TO START RUNNING!”**

* * *

**“WAKE UP, GIRLS!”** Diana shouted.

**“IT’S HAZING TIME, BITCHES!”** Winnie added. **“YOU’RE GOING TO RUN SOME LAPS TODAY!”**

They had the entire hazing week planned. The first day it was the toughest, running laps at four in the morning for two hours before having to go to class… is not something everyone would like to do on their first day of university.

**“YOU HAVE TWENTY MINUTES TO GET DRESSED AND TO EAT BEFORE YOU HAVE TO START RUNNING. SO GET MOVING!”** Anne clapped her hands.

* * *

When they came up with the idea for the first activity, they did not like very much the idea of having to wake up this early –poor people from the other years that most likely were woken up from all the yelling, but they were outside now so they could go back to sleep-, now, seeing the freshmen running around the houses, Anne had to admit it was pretty funny. Most of the freshmen were not even running at this point, most of them were walking fast or just walking. They were still playing music, which made it more enjoyable.

**“WATERMELON SUGAR!”** Cole sang.

**“HIGH!”** The freshmen responded.

After the song finished playing the first time, Moody came up with the game of singing that phrase of the chorus, just like Marco Polo, but replacing the words with Watermelon Sugar High.

Anne was lying on the floor with her head on Gilbert’s lap; he was running his hand through her hair. **“I’m going to fall asleep if you keep doing that”**

**“Then sleep, they’re still running, I’ll wake you up later”**

**“Can’t”**

**“Why not?”**

**“It’s almost six”**

**“Right”**

They planned to go have breakfast at 6:15, a few minutes before the first activity was supposed to end, so everyone would see them leaving together. That was the first step of their plan –not what they were doing right now-.

**“What time is it exactly?”** he asked.

**“5:57, why?”**

**“I need to get changed”** Gilbert was still wearing his pajamas, he did not bother to change before, after all, he was only going to sit in front of his house and watch the freshmen run.

**“Oh, right”** Anne sat up, letting him get up **“Could you bring me one of your hoodies? I’m kinda cold”**

**“Sure, which one?”**

**“Surprise me”**

**“Ok, be right back”** He winked, **“WATERMELON SUGAR!”**

**“HIGH”** The freshmen responded.

* * *

Gilbert changed in about ten minutes, perfect. He gave Anne his favorite green hoodie and she put it on immediately, shivering a bit.

He whistled, **“What?”** Anne asked.

**“Looks good on you”** Gilbert complimented, loud enough for the others to hear, and they clearly did. Roy clenched his jaw and looked the other way, at the same time, Cole and Diana shared a look, which Gilbert thought it was weird, but he ignored them.

**“Thanks”** Anne smiled, **“it’s very soft, I might steal it from you”**

**“No need to steal, that’s my favorite, just ask when you want to borrow it”**

**“Hm, I’ll think about it”** She responded, **“Ready to go? You have your keys and your wallet?”**

**“Yeah, let’s go”** he gestured with his head towards his car.

No one had said anything yet, so both of them were relieved when Cole finally asked **“Where are you going?”**

**“To have breakfast, Miss Anne here is hungry”** Gilbert explained and Anne nodded.

**“And he said he’s going to buy me donuts and coffee”**

**“I did not say that”** Gilbert looked down at her, faking annoyance. Anne pouted and he sighed, **“Alright, anything for you, red. Come on, let’s go”**

**“You can’t go”** Winnie said before they could start walking.

**“Why?”**

**“The activity is not over”**

**“So?”** Gilbert asked, this time not faking his annoyance.

**“You have to wait until we’re done”** she responded, clearly annoyed –and probably jealous- too.

**“What for?”**

**“To-”**

**“Ugh”** Cole groaned, **“Let them go, we were all just sitting here on our phones anyway”**

**“Yeah, who cares”** Roy added. That’s weird. He most likely just wants them out of his sight.

**“Nice chat, Winifred”** Gilbert smiled, **“Goodbye, guys”**

**“Bye”** they all replied, some more excited than others.

* * *

**“Did you see their faces?”** Gilbert laughed, once they were inside his car, driving to Dunkin Donuts, per Anne’s request.

**“No”** Anne whined, **“I was looking at you, selling the… act, you know?”**

He hummed **, “Roy was pissed, I could tell, and he basically told us to go”** She laughed, **“And Winifred too, she didn’t show it with physical gestures, but the way she talked to us? Oh my god, loved it, she was so jealous”**

**“That I could see, pretty funny how they’re dating each other and they care more about their exes”**

**“Ew, I’m not her ex** ” he gagged.

**“Whatever”** Anne rolled her eyes, **“you do have to buy me donuts and coffee by the way”**

**“I know”** He sighed, **“I’m such a good boyfriend”**

**“Not boyfriend yet”**

**“Right”** Anne yawned, **“Wow there, you almost ate my car”**

**“Not funny,”** She slapped his arm, **“I have class till 2 pm today, I hate it, and part two of the hazing today starts at 4, I won’t have enough time to eat and sleep, my naps usually last two hours”**

**“You could take a nap anyway,”** he said. Gilbert knew how important naps were for her. **“how about this, my last class ends at 12pm, I could order take out and then you can come, eat and then take a nap, when the hazing starts I’ll just say you’re taking a nap in my room, I don’t think anyone would be against it, considering you’re the last one to finish your classes today”**

**“What if Winifred says something?”**

**“I’m sure Diana and Cole, and also Moody, Charlie, Ruby, are on our side. Don’t worry”**

* * *

Gilbert ordered Chinese and was now waiting in the living room for Anne, the rest of the boys were either on their rooms or out, so he was alone when she walked in, still wearing his green hoodie.

**“Thank you, thank you”** Anne said when she sat next to him.

**“No problem”**

They ate watching an episode of The Big Bang Theory. A second episode was starting when Anne started to fall asleep, cuddling with Gilbert on the couch. He must have fallen asleep at some point too because he woke up after hearing a loud noise coming from behind the couch.

**“What the fuck”** he groaned, rubbing his eyes with his left hand, holding Anne –still asleep- with the other.

**“I’m sorry, I accidentally dropped this”** Roy said, picking up the shoeboxes he dropped ‘accidentally’.

**“It’s ok, what time is it?”** Gilbert asked; Anne started to stir a bit.

**“4:15, Cole, Moody and Charlie are upstairs giving the freshmen the heels. I was just carrying the last boxes upstairs”**

**“Ok, I’ll be right there to help you, just let me take Anne to my room, she’s exhausted”**

Roy hummed walking out of the room.

Gilbert started to move slowly until he managed to get out completely out of Anne’s embrace. He stood up and carried her bridal style to his room, attracting a few weird looks on his way. He settled her on the left side of the bed and gave her one of his extra pillows so she could hug it. Gilbert left his room, closing the door slowly even though it did not really matter, Anne would not wake up anyway.

**“What’s wrong with Anne?”** Cole asked once Gilbert got close to the group.

**“She’s just tired, her last class ended at 2pm today. I’m just going to let her sleep for a while longer”**

**“Yeah,”** Cole nods, then comes close to his ear and whispers **“glad you’re finally making a move, by the way, took you long enough”**

Gilbert smiled and nodded, not entirely sure what he meant.

* * *

The second activity of the day was, not exactly an activity. They had to wear heels for five hours, well, the girls, the boys argued girls –which by the way, sexism- had more experience walking with heels. So, the boys only had to wear them for four hours, except for the freshman who complained that morning, he had 30 extra minutes walking with heels. Every time someone complained they had to take a shot, and if they sat for too long –because the hard task is walking in them and not actually wearing them-, they had to take two shots.

It was around 5pm when Gilbert went to his room to get Anne; she was sleeping in the same position he had left her in. She looked so peaceful, it physically and mentally hurt him to wake her up, but the others –mainly Winifred, Josie, and Roy- were annoyed they were doing ‘all the work’ while Anne was sleeping. He sat next to her on the bed, her red hair was cascading down her back, her arms were wrapped around the pillow he gave her, her breathing was calm, her eyes were moving slightly –she was probably dreaming-. Anne looked beautiful. Gilbert knew she was beautiful, the first time he saw her she took his breath away, that is why he approached her right away, but when he met her, he saw she was not just beautiful on the outside but also on the inside.

He moved his hand to her arm, caressing it, **“Anne, wake up”** she did not even stir and Gilbert snorted. He really thought he could wake her up like that when this girl could sleep through a concert. **“Anne”** he tried again, louder this time, **“Wake up”** he started moving her.

Nothing.

Gilbert sighed and grabbed the pillow between her arms, hitting her with it. **“WAKE UP!”** Anne groaned. That’s something at least. He hit her again, **“ANNE, WAKE UP!”** she turned and hit him with her hand on his face. **“Ouch! WAKE UP!”**

The words apparently hit somewhere this time because she opened her eyes wide, **“what time is it?”**

**“5 in the afternoon, red, get the fuck up”** Anne groaned, taking the pillow from Gilbert and using it to cover her eyes from the light. **“Come on, Winifred and Roy are being pains in the ass”**

**“When are they not?”**

**“True”** he nodded, **“but get up, they’re saying they’re killing themselves working, which is not true by the way, and you’re here sleeping”**

Anne groaned again, **“Fine”**

* * *

They were standing in the middle of the road between their houses. The freshmen were standing in line, one next to the holding hands –they were playing Red Rover-. The heels already long forgotten and most of them really drunk.

**“Remember!”** Moody called before the game could start, **“the loser will have to die their hair bright pink or green, we’re letting you choose the color at least”** he laughed.

**“I wonder where you got the inspiration for the colors”** one of the boys murmured…loud enough for everyone to hear and they started laughing.

**“WATERMELON SUGAR!”** Roy –he what?- sang.

**“HIGH!”**

They were playing with different rules this time. Every time the chain was broken, the people who ‘were broken’ had to leave instead of joining the other team. You could win people back by breaking the other team’s chain.

At the end, the girls won. The boys used the excuse that they complained too much and sat for too long so they were extremely drunk and were not capable of holding on to each other –yeah, right-.

The following day, the girls tinted the losers’ hair half green, half pink –it was not permanent so it would go away after 5-7 washes-, staying with the watermelon theme.

* * *

The rest of the week was pretty fun too, on the second day the freshmen had to go to class exactly how they woke up, they could not even brush their teeth –but they were given mints… to help the smell-. In the afternoon, the houses were washing cars to collect money. As usual, a lot of thirsty girl went only to flirt with Gilbert, who politely ignored them all. Anne was clearly annoyed with these girls **“aw, don’t be jealous, red”** he said, and she responded by throwing him a bucket full of soapy water.

On day three, the freshmen were bombarded with water balloons when they got to the house from class. Anne was ‘accidentally’ bombarded for a few seconds too because Gilbert did not recognize her. **“You’re such a lying piece of shit, you always say you can recognize me from a mile away”** to what he replied **“I’ve never said that, red”**. She then punched him in the chest, Gilbert threw himself to the ground and said he would not get up until she kissed his chest because **“it hurts so much and kisses help”** he said pouting. Anne accepted after he had been lying there on the floor with a hand on the spot for over an hour.

Day four was Macarena day. If someone screamed “MACARENA TIME” you were obligated to stop what you were doing, get up and dance the Macarena. It was boring at first, but when the students who were not part of the houses started catching up to what was happening, they joined in as well, saying Macarena time whenever they wanted to. Almost at the end of the day, a random person screamed it so all the freshmen had to dance together.

The fifth day was the party. Everything was ready; the only thing left to do was…painting. Every member was dressed in white because it shines better under a black light. Apparently the only way of painting themselves was by throwing paint at each other –non-toxic- outside the house.

That’s how the party started.

At this point of the night, everyone was very drunk, except for Anne and Gilbert, who decided not to drink as much and do something stupid that could blow their entire plan. They had been dancing for about an hour and now they are in a corner very close to each other, Gilbert with his back pressed against the wall and Anne almost pressed against him. Everyone noticed them, he could see the way they were trying to look discreetly, but failing.

**“It’s working. They’re looking at us”** Gilbert said loud enough only for her to hear.

**“What should we do”**

**“Kiss”** Anne nodded, **“but we have to make it slow, sexy, sell it”**

**“It’s just a kiss, curly. We’re not making a porno”**

He groaned, **“Trust me. Let’s start like this”**. Gilbert put a hand on her waist, moving her slightly closer to him, Anne put a hand on his chest moving it slowly to his neck. She snorted. **“What’s so funny?”**

**“This entire situation”** Gilbert moved his other hand to her waist and finally pulled her flushed against him. Anne’s breath caught on her throat.

**“It’s not supposed to be funny”**

**“I know. I just can’t believe we’re doing this”**

**“Stop talking, you’re ruining the moment, red”** he whispered. She rolled her eyes **“I’m gonna kiss you now, ok?”** Anne nodded, his voice sent shivers over her entire body. He leaned painfully slow –she thought-. When Gilbert finally pressed their lips together, he could swear he heard a clap.

They kissed slowly at first, getting to know each other’s mouths. Anne noticed he did not taste like alcohol at all. She tangled her hand in his curls, tilting his head to kiss him better. His hands squeezed her waist and pulled her impossibly close to him, nibbling at her lower lip, begging for access. She gave in, and he took the opportunity immediately. They kissed for felt like 20 minutes or 20 seconds, until Anne pulled away, Gilbert chasing her lips.

Oh, what the hell

She kissed him again until the need for air was stronger.

**“Wow”** Anne said.

**“Wow”** Gilbert breathed, hugging her, looking discreetly to the group of people behind her. “Wanna go upstairs?” he said, mouthing her neck.

Anne nodded. Gilbert pulled back, putting an arm around her and both started talking to his room, hearing Cole exclaim **“OH MY GOOD IT’S HAPPENING!”**

**“Put on music!”** Anne said once they were inside his room.

**“For what?”**

**“So people think we’re having sex… you know, people play music when they’re having sex s-”**

**“I know, Anne, gosh”** Gilbert groaned. Connecting his phone to the speakers and putting his playlist called ‘Better Than Words’.

**“Good, now come, we have to make it seem like we actually had sex”** She grabbed him and stamped him against the door, he groaned again, **“yes, like that”** she nodded.

**“Fuck you, that hurt”**

**“Baby** ” Anne rolled her eyes.

**“Stop rolling your eyes or they will get stuck”** She ignored him. Then she started messing up his hair and clothes, and her own hair and clothes too. **“We have to stay here for a while or else people will believe I don’t have enough stamina”**

Anne sighed, looking at him. **“We still look to not-sex like”**

**“What the fuck does that even mean?”**

**“Let’s jump on the bed”** Anne said, ignoring his question. **“We’re not sweaty and we need to bang the wall a bit too”**

**“Jesus, woman. You like it rough, don’t you? Why the hell would we need to bang on the wall?”**

**“Because”** she grabbed him again and threw him to the bed, getting on it too and starting to jump. **“Come on, get up, jump with me”** Gilbert groaned, standing up to jump with her.

* * *

They jumped for seven songs -approximately- and then they went downstairs again. Everyone else in the party had their attention on them, walking to the living room where their friends were, Gilbert’s arm around her waist protectively. They found all their friends sitting on the couch playing some stupid party game.

**“How was it?”** Moody asked, wiggling his brows. Gilbert hit him and took the only place next to him on the couch, bringing Anne to sip on his lap. It’s not the first time they sit like this, but there was something different –for obvious reasons-. It was clear everyone in the room had questions, and neither of them was planning on answering them at the moment. Suspense, darling.

**“What are you guys doing?”** Anne asked, getting comfortable. Gilbert put his arm around her waist again and she turned her head to look at him, biting her lip to contain her laugh.

**“We’re playing KISS ME WHEN I’M WRONG!”** Cole exclaimed.

**“That’s not the actual name but we don’t remember so Ruby suggested that one”** Diana explained.

**“And we love it!”**

**“How do you play?** ” Gilbert asked this time.

**“We play in pairs and ask random questions, one person of the team has to answer the way their partner would. If they’re wrong, they have to kiss”** Ruby explained, **“The name is pretty self-explanatory”**

**“So, wanna play?”** Cole asked, **“Diana’s with Fred, Moody’s with Charlie, and I’m with Ruby”**

**“Sure”**

The game was really stupid; Moody explained later that they were betting too, the loser team had to help clean the house –unfair by the way because the boys have to clean it already so they’re not really losing anything, as Diana said-. The questions were easy, they went from ‘what’s your favorite color’ to ‘if you could only save one item from a house fire what would you save’. Moody and Charlie had kissed –just pecks- over 15 times, not on purpose, they just did not know each other that well. Ruby and Cole were doing pretty well so far as well as Fred and Diana, but obviously Anne and Gilbert were winning.

**“Next question: tea or coffee?”** Ruby asked, **“It’s your turn to answer Cole”**

**“Ruby prefers… tea?”**

**“Correct!”** she shrieked.

**“Hold on, hold on”** Moody started, clearly annoyed. **“How do we know you’re not lying?”**

**“You don’t”** Cole shrugged.

**“Ok so, Fred likes coffee”** Diana said and Fred nodded.

Moody groaned again, **“Charlie… coffee?”**

**“Yes!”** Charlie exclaimed, **“Finally”**

**“Gilbert likes coffee”** Anne said, completely sure.

**“Wrong”**

**“What?!”** She frowned, **“I’m not wrong”**

**“You are”**

**“I’m not”** She scoffed, **“you do prefer coffee, you always have coffee and you told me you hate tea because it tastes like ass”**

Gilbert laughed, **“true, it does taste like ass”**

**“Then why did you say I’m wrong, I’m never wrong”** Her frown deepened.

He sighed, putting his hand on her cheek, **“I just wanted a kiss”**

Gilbert brought their lips together before she could even respond. There are those shivers again, all over her body. How is it possible that he already knows how to kiss her the way she likes, and it’s only the second time they have kissed? Stop thinking about it, she repeated herself.

It was not as long or as passionate as the last one, they pulled away after a few seconds when Moody nudged Gilbert and said, **“Wow there, just pecks, Blythe”**

Anne laughed softly with her eyes still closed, and pecked him once. **“just ask next time you want one, curly”**. The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them, and as soon as she realized what she had just said her cheeks turned as red as her hair.

**“I’ll take you up on that”** he whispered back.

* * *

It was nearly 3 in the morning, the party was still going strong, but Anne has been yawning in Gilbert’s ear for over 20 minutes, clearly tired.

**“Ok, that’s enough,”** He said, pushing her face away, **“You have to sleep, let’s go, I’ll walk you”**

Another yawn, **“No, I can go by myself”**

**“You can, but you won’t. I’ll go with you to make sure you get there safe”**

**“She just has to cross the street!”** Moody said, **“what could happen?”**

**“I don’t know and I don’t want to find out, come on”** Gilbert made her stand up, standing up himself after.

Anne groaned, faking annoyance, but Gilbert –and everyone- could see right through it. They started to walk out when Cole stopped them, **“Hey, by the way. You’re really whipped!”** he said, adding a sound effect to make it more dramatic.

Gilbert just flipped him off and left, putting his hand on the small of Anne’s back.

* * *

**“Thank you for walking me, boyfriend”** Anne yawned again, lying on her bed.

Gilbert snorted, **“Not your boyfriend yet, I can still back out”** he teased, putting the covers over her.

**“I think it’s too late for that”** yawn.

**“Goodnight, I’ll see you tomorrow”** He kissed her forehead, **“dream of me”** he winked starting to walk out of her room.

**“Hopefully not, I don’t want to have any nightmares”**

**“Fuck you”**

**“Goodnight, curly!”** Anne laughed.

**“Goodnight”**

* * *

**“You know you really didn’t have to walk her, right?”** Moody asked once he got back.

**“Yeah, I know”**

**“it’s just boyfriend things, Moody”** Ruby explained.

**“Boyfriend things indeed,”** Gilbert said happily.

**“OH MY GOD, YES, YES, YES!”** Cole jumped from where he was sitting, **“Let’s do shots, we need shots to celebrate!”**

**“Celebrate what?”** Charlie asked.

**“Hello? Are you serious?”** Cole asked, **“We’re celebrating Anne and Gilbert finally got their heads out of their asses and admitted their feelings for each other!”**

Gilbert did not understand what Cole was talking about, but all their friends seemed to buy their fake relationship so he was not going to say anything about it. The best part of Cole’s announcement was that he was so loud almost everyone around them heard him; he could even see Roy and Winifred from the corner of his eye, looking at his friend group. Oh boy, and if stares could kill, everyone here right now would be dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not updating in over a month. I haven't been feeling that well mentally. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, tell me your thoughts! 
> 
> Please, be safe, be smart and treat people with kindness :)
> 
> xo GingerSpirits


	4. Chapter 4

The house meetings had gotten increasingly more awkward now that Anne and Gilbert started “publicly dating”. Winifred had been acting like more of a bitch than she normally does. She even said that from now own they had to sit separated, meaning, each house on a different side of the table. No one listened to her of course, even Roy and Josie thought it was a ridiculous idea.

Anne and Gilbert were not acting much differently than they did around each other, which was a bit weird for both parts, considering the were not a couple before, but apparently they acted like one. Cole kept telling them how he saw it coming, but they just ignored him. How could he see something that was not there? They were friends, the best of friends, but Anne would never tell Cole that.

It was so easy to be around each other, and yes, that is probably something you would want to have with someone you are romantically involved with, but it was not like that with Gilbert, and she was sure Gilbert thought the same thing.

Gilbert

He was supposed to be here already. Face-mask Friday was a new tradition of theirs. While everyone else supposed they were doing couple things –sex, but no one dared to say it out loud in front of them for some reason-, they would put on The Big Bang Theory and wear face-masks, and he was late. Anne was about to send another text telling him to hurry up when he opened the door, dropped his school bag next to the door, and took off his shoes.

**“About damn time”** Anne said, crossing her arms.

**“Aw, you missed me, red?”** Gilbert asked, she just rolled her eyes, **“Sorry, I was helping this girl from my class with an assignment, I lost track of time”**

**“Which girl?”** she raised her brow.

**“Zoe, you don’t know her”** he said casually, rubbing his eyes.

**“Huh,”** She said, **“Anyway, come on, we have a show to watch and face-masks to wear”** she clapped

**“Which ones are we wearing today?”** He asked, coming to lay with her on the bed. He put his head on her chest and hugged her waist. **“I don’t want the black ones you peel off, they hurt”** he said with his eyes closed, Anne running her hand through his curls.

**“No, I bought these that are like bubbles”** Anne said, happily.

**“Bubbles?”**

**“You put like- the cream on and after a while bubbles start forming, I think they’re called foam masks or something like that”** Gilbert hummed, **“are you ok?”**

**“I’m fine, just a little tired”** he started yawning mid-sentence.

**“We don’t have to do this tonight, you could just go to sleep”** Anne said softly, still massaging his curls.

**“You sure?”** he yawned again.

**“Yes, you’ll have to pay me back next week though”**

Gilbert laughed softly, **“I will”**

**“Wanna stay the night?”** Anne asked, **“You don’t seem like someone capable of getting up and walk to their house right now”**

**“I’m not”** he said, hugging her tighter.

**“You want to sleep right now?”**

**“It’s still early, right?”** Anne stopped massaging his head, ignoring Gilbert’s little groan of protest, to grab her phone so she could see the time.

**“Almost 10 pm”** she said, starting to run her hand through his hair again. Gilbert sighed happily.

**“Early”** he stated, **“let’s watch Black Mirror”**

Anne agreed, turning on the TV to put Netflix. He moved off of her to slide under the covers. She got out of the bed and went to change to her PJs in the bathroom. It usually took her around 10 minutes to do her nightly routine, but this time she did all her process 10 times faster so Gilbert would not have to wait long. It was useless though, he was already asleep when she came back.

After turning off all the lights, except for the little lamp next to her bed, she got into bed. Black Mirror was off the table now, so she decided to read, Percy Jackson –Diana had been begging her for months, and she finally started reading it-. It was not long until Gilbert’s soft and relaxed breathing lulled her into sleep, with the book still in her hands.

* * *

The following morning, Gilbert woke up first, Anne cuddled to him. One of the lamps was still on, which… weird. He took Anne’s phone to check the time; his phone was dead since he did not have his charger.

7:36am

His first class was at 9 am, he had time to stay in bed for a little while. Gilbert looked down at Anne. How could someone look so beautiful this early in the morning? Wait, what? Well, it’s ok to think your friends are beautiful, and he was not blind, he could clearly see how beautiful she was, even asleep and hair a bit messy because she moves a bit when she sleeps. He kept getting these weird thoughts about her more often than not. Maybe it was because he was allowed to stare, she is his girlfriend after all, or that is what everyone thought. He started to see all the beautiful little things about her even more, he had seen them, but now it was like he was really seeing them. He did not realize he had spent the next 14 minutes looking at her until her alarm went off at 7:50. Anne stirred and opened her eyes after a few seconds. Gilbert turned off her alarm and she sighed, closing her eyes again, he laughed.

**“Wake up, we have class”** He whispered.

**“Five more minutes,”** She mumbled to his chest.

**“I have to go to the house, I need to get ready for class”** Anne turned around, letting him free. Gilbert pulled off the covers and shivered. **“It’s cold”**

**“Take one of my hoodies”**

**“They won’t fit, red”** He responded, **“You’re tiny”**

**“They’re not tiny”** Anne opened her eyes, sitting on the bed and rubbing her eyes **“I like them big”**

Gilbert snorted, **“That’s what she said”**. Anne hit him in the chest and he just laughed, getting up to look for the hoodie.

**“Wear the pink one”** Anne said, smiling.

**“Why?”**

**“Guys look hot in pink and also, that way your frat friends will know it’s mine”** She explained.

**“First of all, I’m already hot, thank you very much, and second why would I want them to know it’s yours?”**

**“Boyfriend things”** She shrugged.

**“Roy never wore your hoodies”** He argued.

**“Well, Roy’s a bitch”** Anne said, matter-of-factly, **“Now, pink hoodie, come on”** she clapped.

Gilbert started looking through her hoodie drawer and found other thing instead, **“What the fuck is this?”** he said turning to look at her, showing her…the thing. He knew what it was but for some reason, he was not expecting to find it here, or that she had one.

Anne laughed out loud, **“Oh my goodness, I forgot that was there”** Gilbert looked at her confused, **“It’s a vibrator, curly. What else do you think it is?”**

**“Why do you have one?”**

**“Because I have needs,”** She laughed, **“and my boyfriend doesn’t satisfy me, I had to find an alternative”**

**“Your boyfriend could please you, you know?”** He was not lying, the first time he met her he could not stop thinking about her, as time went on, those thoughts calmed down, but knowing she had this…vibrator, did something to him. _Brain, stop it_. He winked at her before turning his back on her again, putting the dildo back on the drawer and taking the pink hoodie.

Anne gagged, **“stop”**

He laughed, putting the hoodie on, **“Yeah, yeah, I know you can’t resist me, I can’t please you right now though, I really have to go”**

She threw a pillow at him and he dodged it. **“Get out”**

Gilbert grabbed his backpack and put his phone in his pocket, **“See you later, babe”** he said with a smug smile, standing next to the door, getting out of her room before she could throw another pillow at him.

He was almost at the door of the house when he found Winifred. Gilbert smiled politely and walked passed her, or tried to. She grabbed him by the wrist.

**“Why are you doing here so early?”**

**“Because I slept here?”** He responded, raising his brow.

**“Why?”**

**“Well, not that is any of your business, but my girlfriend lives here, in case you forgot, and I wanted to be with her”** He smiled, trying to his annoyance. Gilbert was impressed how with just a few words Winifred was able to annoy him, and he was a fairly patient and tolerant person, but she was 100 times worse than any other person he has met, not even Roy annoys him as easily. **“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have class and I need to go get ready”**

Winifred muttered something as he was walking away, he turned to her again, **“If you have something to tell me, you could just say it, you know?”** _or maybe tell Anne what you think, she’ll be glad to tell you a piece of her mind too_ , but he was not about to say that, drama was only good in movies and TV shows, not in real life.

That is very rich, actually. What is real life anymore? He is fucking pretending to be his best friend’s boyfriend to make people jealous, if that is not a fucking movie… oh wait, it is. He almost forgot how he got this stupid idea after all. _I’ll be your Peter K._ , he had said. The difference was that LJ and Peter actually liked each other… on second thought… no.

Winifred. She is still here. Something on her face shifted, but she played it off casually, **“I just think… you could do so much better than her”** Winifred said with a shrug.

Gilbert laughed, **“I strongly disagree, considering she’s the most perfect girl I’ve ever met”**

And wait… the words came out of his mouth before he could think about it. Huh. Anne was the most perfect girl he has ever met, it is true. Wow. He had not realized it before. I mean, he is pretty much blind not to realize how perfect she is with her blue eyes, red hair, her freckles, her laugh was perfect too and her- Focus, Blythe.

He smiled again, **“Goodbye”** Gilbert said quickly before finally going out of the house.

* * *

Pinterest is addictive, so addictive. Anne had been on the app for almost two hours, it started with a quick search of ‘blue cottagecore aesthetic’ and for some reason she cannot understand, she is now looking at pictures of Harry Styles. Then, THAT picture came up. It was Harry with his hands covering his face, his beautiful eyes, his rings and, the most important part of the picture besides Harry himself, his nails. His beautiful nails, painted yellow with little black smiley faces. Because of those nails, Anne was at the store buying black and yellow nail polish, but she could not paint her nails, could she?

She could not.

It had to be a boy, and luckily, she had her very own, cheaper –and more accessible- version of the man with style himself. Gilbert. Now, the tough part was getting him to agree. Anne needed the perfect moment to pop the question.

Gilbert with yellow nails and black smiley faces? Yes, please. Anne was excited.

* * *

She knocked on the door because, unlike Gilbert, she had manners, and also did not want to walk into a house full of frat boys unannounced. One of the freshmen opened, letting her in immediately. Anne tried not to snap at the boy who called her ‘Gilbert’s girlfriend’ before letting her in, just smiling and going in to find his ‘boyfriend’.

Gilbert was in the living room, watching some hockey match on the TV with some other boys. He was wearing her pink hoodie, and he looked really hot in it, but that is not why she is here right now. Moving on. Moody noticed her first, nudging Gilbert to make him turn. He smiled brightly when he saw her.

**“Hey, beautiful”** He said, standing up from the couch.

**“Hi”** she responded quietly, standing on her tiptoes a bit to give him a little kiss.

They are fake-dating. People expect them to kiss, and it was getting easier every time, every kiss. So, whatever.

He leaned in at the same time, moving his hand to her chin, holding her. It was longer than a little kiss, but not long enough to make the other people in the room uncomfortable.

**“What are you doing here? I wasn’t expecting you”** he whispered, still a little dizzy from the kiss **“I wasn’t, right?”**

Anne laughed softly, **“No, you weren’t. I just wanted to ask you something”**

**“Is everything ok?”**

**“Yes, everything’s fine”** she smiled shyly, **“I just- have you seen this picture of Harry Styles where his covering his face with his hands and you can only see one of his eyes, and he has his nails painted?”**

**“No,”** He furrowed his brows, **“Was that what you wanted to ask? If I knew about some picture of Harry Styles?”** he laughed.

_How dare he!_

Anne gasped, **“first of all, it’s not some picture of Harry Styles”** she frowned and crossed her arms.

Moody snorted, quickly adding a comment into their conversation, **“How dare you, Blythe”**

**“Thank you, Moody”** She nodded, smiling, then turning back to look at Gilbert, she frowned again. **“That’s not what I wanted to ask, it was only to prepare for what was coming”** He looked confused, as usual, **“See, as I mentioned before, Harry has his nails painted in this picture…”**

**“And…?”**

_How dense is he?_

**“And I was thinking I wanted nails like that,”** Anne took her phone out quickly to show him the picture.

He took the phone and looked at the picture, **“They look cute, I’m sure they’ll look even cuter on you”** Moody gagged from his place on the couch.

**“Yeah, about that…”** She smiled, **“I don’t- I was thinking- like- they would look better in another boy, you know? And I was thinking-”** _I hope he gets what I’m trying to say here._

**“No”**

**“And they would look so cute, even hot, in a boy”** Anne continued, trying to convince him. Moody started laughing, she sent him a deadly glare and he stopped.

**“Probably”** he furrowed his brows. Not convinced.

**“And you’re a boy”** _Please, please, say you’ll do it._

**“I am, thank you for noticing”** He replied sarcastically, crossing his arms, smug smile in his face.

**“And you’re my boy”** that seemed to change something inside of him; you could see it in his face. He dropped his hands, putting her around her waist to bring her closer. **“You’re my boy”** she repeated, quietly, putting her hand on his chest. His heart was beating a mile per hour, but she was not going to say anything. Hers was the same.

Moody groaned, startling them. Gilbert turned to look at him, but Anne stayed the same, looking at his side profile, and what a great side profile it was.

**“Stop being all cute in front of me, I feel lonely,”** He said and some other boys nodded their agreement.

**“You’re lonely because you want to”** Gilbert retorted, and wait a minute- Anne looked at him. Moody hissed a quiet ‘shut up’. Gilbert just rolled his eyes, turning back to Anne.

**“What was that about?”** She raised her brow.

**“Nothing!”** Moody replied instead.

Anne hummed unconvinced, **“Anyway…”**

**“No”**

**“Baby”** Anne whined, putting her arms around his neck. Heck yeah, she was getting really good at this fake-relationship thing. Even Gilbert seemed a little flustered, his cheeks were extremely red and she could feel the heat coming from the back of his neck. Poor thing, he must be so embarrassed Anne is making look like the whipped boyfriend right now. **“Pretty please?”** she pouted. Coming up to nudge his nose with hers, Gilbert’s lip parted, and wow, he looked so good right now, this close. Maybe she had outdone it because she was starting to feel her cheeks and neck heating up too. He was looking at her like a starved man and either he is a really good actor or he just as hot and bothered now as she was starting to get. Fuck. There are people around them. This needed to stop. **“Please?”** she said, coming out a little weaker than intended. She could see Gilbert’s brothers looking at them –some more discreet than others- from the corner of her eye. She leaned just a little bit, kissing him slowly and quick, way too quick.

**“Fuck,”** He sighed, their faces still close, **“Fine”**

Moody played the sound of Indiana Jones’ whip the instant the words left his mouth and Anne could not help but to laugh a little.

**“Thanks,”** She smiled, **“I’ll wait in your room”** she said quickly, kissing his cheek.

Anne left quickly to his room, barely catching a **“shut up”** coming from Gilbert and then the laughs of some of the boys.

* * *

Fucking Anne Shirley

How could she do that? And also in front of everyone. Gilbert has never felt this sexually frustrated. Apparently the sentiment was clear in his face because as soon as he left the room, the boys started making comments about it.

**“Shut up”** He said, making the boys laugh.

**“I’m surprised you were able to contain yourself, man”** One of the freshmen said, Jonny.

**“Please,”** Moody said, dragging the e, **“Ten more seconds and he would’ve put her up against the wall”**

Ok, maybe, but not on this wall. He would have carried her upstairs to his room and then put her up against the wall, but he was not going to say that.

Anyway.

Gilbert hated petnames, but hearing her whine ‘baby’ to him, that was- that did… things to him. She had to stop doing that. He has to tell her that calling him petnames makes him lose his shit. No. Wait. He could not tell her that. What would she think? No, never. Oh my god and the ‘you’re my boy’. Fuck. And now he could not stop thinking how would that sound if she were in bed with him. _Ok, brain, you’ve got to stop now._

**“Look he’s all dizzy and flustered”** Moody laughed, breaking him out of his thoughts.

**“Shut up”** he repeated.

**“It’s that the only thing you remember how to say now?”** His friend laughed, **“wow, she’s got you good”**

**“Shut-”** Gilbert sighed, **“I have to go”** he said, going out of the living room.

**“Please put music on, I don’t wanna hear it!”**

**“SHUT UP”** He shouted. **“She’s just going to paint my nails”** _wow that was just ridiculous_.

* * *

She did just paint his nails. Anne was applying the second coat of yellow when she said **, “So, why did you tell them to shut up when I left?”** And wow, how is he going to tell her that she left him so hot and bothered that his brothers saw it painted perfectly in his face without it being weird?

It was like destiny, his phone dinged, saving him from that awkward explanation. Grabbing it, he saw it was a Snapchat notification. Huh. Anne must have seen his confusion on his.

**“What?”** She asked.

**“Zoe wants to add me on Snapchat”** He said, accepting the request.

**“The girl you studied with the other day?”**

**“Yes, I don’t know how she got it. I didn’t give it to her”** Just as he finished that sentence another ding sounded. **“She just sent me a snap”**

He opened it. It was a picture of her on a couch and written on the little black line bellow ‘heeey’. Anne took a quick look from her spot next to him on the bed.

**“She’s cute”** She said.

**“Yeah”** Gilbert shrugged. Not that he cared.

**“Does she know you have a girlfriend?”**

He almost snapped –haha, snapped- his neck of how fast he turned to look at her.

**“Are you jealous, red?”** He smiled smugly. Jealous Anne… he liked it.

**“I am not”** She rolled her eyes, **“and you didn’t answer my question”**

**“She knows”** He replied, the smile still in his face, **“Everyone knows. Apparently no one saw me as a relationship type of guy”**

**“Well,”** She sighed, starting to draw the smiley faces on his nails, her brows furrowed, concentrated, **“you are kind of a fuckboy”**

**“I am not”**

**“You fucked almost every girl in my sorority, curly”**

**“I did not”** He wanted to cross his arms, but if he moved Anne would kill him, **“That’s an exaggeration. I only had sex with Winifred and some other girls 10 tops, and how many of you are there? Like 50”** he argued, **“People only think I’ve fucked a lot of girls, 10 is not that many by the way. Also, last year a girl said I slept with her and I didn’t, probably not the first nor the last to say something like that. So, yeah”**

**“Why didn’t you say anything? Like- she lied, you should’ve said something”** Anne asked, stopping her nail art.

**“You know how it is, it’s always worse for the girl. She didn’t get slut-shamed for sleeping with me, but people would definitely say something if I said she was a liar. I don’t care that much really, but I don’t understand why someone would make up something like that”** He said, his smile gone and replaced by a little frown.

**“You’re cute for doing that. Also,”** Anne smiled, **“She probably did it for clout. Like Winifred, remember? What I told you a few weeks ago?”** he nodded, **“fucking the hottest guy here probably earned her some popularity, even respect, around here”** she shrugged and continued her nail art.

Hottest guy here… so she thinks I’m hot

Another ding came before he could even go around that thought. Zoe. Right.

‘no reply? Damn:(’ it said over another picture of her pouting.

Gilbert opened the camera and took a picture of his –almost done- nails. He wrote ‘my gf is painting my nails, it’s a bit difficult to snap’, his blurry pic proves so. It was opened almost as instantly as it was sent, but then 10 minutes passed, then 30, then an hour and he got no reply.

A few hours after Anne left, obviously after taking an extreme amount of pictures of his nails and also recreating THE famous picture, he was on his bed watching TikTok when he saw some very familiar hands come up on his for you page. The caption said ‘my boyfriend let me paint his nails like Harry’s #harrystyles #couples’. It was a TikTok that started with different pictures of the nail-painting process and then a short video of him posing for the camera. Gilbert really thought she was just taking pictures of the nails, not filming him. When he looked at the likes, what the fuck- 862k likes and it has been up for only two hours.

* * *

**Curls**

YOU POSTED A TIKTOK

WITH MY NAILS IN IT

AND MY FACE

**AnnE**

And it went viral

**Curls**

EVERYONE’S GOING TO MAKE FUN OF ME

**AnnE**

Bitch-

Did you look at the comments???????

Everyone wants you as a boyfriend

**Curls**

If any of the boys see that

Istg

**AnnE**

They’re going to see you with your beautiful nails anyway

**Curls**

I hate you

**AnnE**

Sure

I have to sleep

Gn <3

**Curls**

._.

Good night.

* * *

Gilbert spent the following week wearing his yellow nails with black smiley faces. Girls loved them and Anne could not be prouder of her work, but of course, his brothers never stopped making fun of him about them and making a ‘whip sound’ every time they could. Also, not that he would ever tell Anne, but she was starting to like them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the picture of Harry Styles with his BEAUTIFUL nails: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6d/f0/5d/6df05d696333d2848098273d82b633b3.png
> 
> I don't have much to say here except for... girls masturbate too! and that Face-mask Friday it's totally a thing my friends and I do.
> 
> Leave a comment if you'd like and tell me what you thought!
> 
> Please, be safe, be smart and treat people with kindness :)
> 
> xo GingerSpirits


	5. Chapter 5

College is stressful, no matter how much you loved what you were studying there are times when you start to consider if all this trouble was worth it. Right now was one of those moments. Anne has been trying for the last ten minutes to print the text she needs for her classical greek class and the printer keeps making weird noises and showing the message: ERROR!!

It does not make sense. The guy that was using it just before her, printed his stuff perfectly. Why is it not working for her? Life is so unfair.

Ugh

This day has been bad enough already.

She was late for class because her alarm did not go off. Gilbert did not plug in her phone before he left last night, not that he had to but he should have, so her phone died in the middle of the night. Thankfully, Diana barged into her room looking for a shirt to borrow and woke her up. Anne only had time to get dressed quickly and grab an apple. She ate it on her way to class, but usually, she has a pretty decent breakfast to survive until lunchtime, but today she only had an apple. That is why when she was in the middle of her second to last class, the teacher had turned around to write something on the board and the class was completely quiet, her stomach growled, making almost every pair of eyes in the classroom turn to look at her.

Then, Gilbert invited her to have lunch with him and he did not apologize for forgetting to plug in her phone ( **“You didn’t tell me I had to, how was I supposed to know!”).** She forgave him eventually, even though he did not do anything. Oh, and then the sandwich she ordered specifically without tomatoes came with… guess what? TOMATOES.

Now the printer is not working, this day could not get worse.

**“Need help, babe?”**

Or it could.

Why of all people? Why? What did she do to deserve this? This day has been horrible and now she had to face the last person she wanted to see…ever.

**“No, Royal”**

**“You sure?”**

**“Yes”**

**“Cause I’ve been watching you for a while and you still haven’t printed anything”** He moved from behind her so she could see his face, but she kept her eyes in the printer.

**“Maybe I just want to keep the machine company”** Anne retorted.

Royal laughed, and quickly covered his mouth. Some time ago Anne would have found that endearing, she knows he hates his laugh and that is why he covers his mouth every time a treacherous laugh leaves his mouth without his permission and control. Now she just finds it ridiculous.

**“That’s cute, come on, babe, let me help you,”** Royal said, reaching for her hand to—who even knows… move it to one of the buttons perhaps?

**“Don’t touch me!”** Anne snapped, quickly realizing she is in a library full of people **“and stop calling me babe”** she said, lowering her voice.

**“Why?”**

**“Only Gilbert can call me that”** It was a stupid excuse, he did not call her that. Both of them had agreed they were not going to be that couple that calls each other babe or baby.

**“Oh, you’re still with him?”**

**“You literally just saw me eating with him at lunch”**

Royal shrugged, changing the subject, **“Let me help you with that”** started to press some random buttons.

**“Why don’t you just leave?”**

**“I don’t want to”**

**“Why? Don’t you have something better to do?”**

**“Maybe… you are the better thing to do”** He winks.

**“Stop”** Anne rolled her eyes, trying to stop the vomit from coming. He seriously needed to chill the fuck out and leave her alone.

**“Why? You know you want to”**

**“No, I don’t. I have Gilbert and believe me he is so much better than you in so many ways”** Anne said, not that she knew, but Royal did not know that. **“Why don’t you go find your girlfriend? Maybe you can convince her to blow you and then you can tell her that you won’t go down on her because you don’t do that”** and wow- and did not mean to sound so bitter, but she was. The number of times Royal told her that… too many to count.

**“I don’t have a girlfriend”** Royal responded, apparently that was the only thing he heard from everything she said.

**“Does Winifred know that?”** she frowned.

**“Winifred is… my friend”** Anne scoffed, **“she is, we haven’t slept together”** she gave him a look, he was not fooling anyone, **“ok, maybe once or twice, but it doesn’t mean anything. She doesn’t even actually like me, and I don’t like her either, I mean she’s hot, yes, but she’s so annoying, and she’s so obsessed with Blythe”** her eyes widen at that. **“I don’t know why everyone is so fucking obsessed with that guy, he’s not even that cute and his dick it’s average sized like- what the fuck”**

She has no idea how he knows that but she is not going to ask.

**“Maybe it’s because he’s a nice person,”** Anne said, matter-of-factly.

**“Please!”** Royal laughed, **“He’s a fucking player. I bet he’s cheating on you right this moment, do you know where he is right now?”**

Anne was annoyed at first but now she is angry, **“No, I don’t know, I don’t have the need to know where my partner is all the time, and I actually trust him, you know? Oh, wait, trusting... that word is not in your vocabulary. Let me explain it to you, I trust Gilbert, meaning, I believe he’s good and honest and that he won’t hurt me”**

It surprises her how easy it was to say that, but it should not be. Anne trusts Gilbert. He has proven himself to be trustworthy, for fuck’s sake, he is pretending to be her boyfriend just so she could get back to her ex –which is working apparently- and the girl she hates. Not everyone does that, and alright, maybe Gilbert is getting the same type of satisfaction she is getting, but he suggested this when she was at her lowest. He is so great, always taking care of her.

He scoffed, **“Gilbert Blythe is going to break your heart, and when that happens, you’ll come back to me, crying and telling me I was right and that you want me back. Maybe, if you’re lucky, I’ll take you back”** Royal said, pressing another button and leaving her alone with the printer. A few seconds later, her text for class started printing.

She grabbed her things and started to walk out of the library. Once she steps foot outside, she realizes… rain. Great.

* * *

It was lunchtime, Gilbert’s favorite time of the day. Normally, he eats with his friends, but apparently, everyone had somewhere to be and Anne was not answering his text. Yesterday, she started to scream at him all of the sudden for not plugging her phone. What the fuck? He forgets stuff sometimes but this time, Anne did not tell him anything. He loves her but she can be really annoying when she wants to. She wanted him to apologize, he did not. Gilbert was right after all, so why would he need to apologize? She forgave him anyway, which…ok, thanks?

He was almost done with his food when he got a text. It was from Anne: _sorry, I don’t feel well_.

It takes him around ten minutes to get to her sorority. Thankfully, he got there when one of the cleaning ladies was taking out the trash so he just went inside, avoiding any interaction with the girls if he had to knock, since Winifred changed the place of the spare key, he has to knock.

_What a bitch_

Thought it makes Gilbert kind of happy thinking she changed the place of the spare key so he would not come all the time to see Anne. Not that it’s working, he still comes practically every day, and when he is not at the sorority, Anne is at his fraternity. Suck that, Winifred.

**“Come in!”** Anne replies after he knocked three times.

He sees her on her bed, covered to her neck with a blanket. Anne was pale and her hair was braided, her little nose was red and her eyes had dark circles under them.

**“Hey,”** Gilbert spoke softly, walking towards the bed and sitting next to her **“how are you? You look good”**

Anne snorted, **“Oh, yeah, I feel great”**

Gilbert put the back of his hand on her forehead, **“You have a fever”**

**“I know, I just took something to calm it”**

He nodded his approval, **“Your nose is red, how cute. It looks like a cherry”** Gilbert cooed, Anne hits him in the arm, quickly regretting it, her body feels weak. **“Aw, how cute, my little cherry”** he booped her nose.

She groaned and turned her back on him, **“Shut up, I’m going to throw up”**

**“Are you really? Should I carry you to the bathroom? Or bring a bucket?”** He worried.

**“No, curly, it’s a figure of speech, I mean, you’re being too cute it makes want to throw up”**

**“Huh”** he sighed, **“Ok, what do you want?” is there anything I can do?”**

She shook her head, **“I just want to sleep for a bit”**

**“OK,”** Gilbert nodded, **“Wanna cuddle?”**

Anne hummed, turning to face him again with her eyes closed. Gilbert moved her a bit so he could get under the blanket with her. They quickly got into place, Gilbert on his back with Anne half on top of him, her legs tangled with his and her arm across his middle. She sighed content.

**“How is it that you’re suddenly like this? You seemed fine yesterday”** he said after a while, whispering in case she was already asleep.

**“Walked here… from library”** she responds just as quietly.

**“Why didn’t you call me? I could’ve picked you up”**

**“Wanted to walk…”** Her explanation interrupted by a yawn, **“Roy was there… didn’t want to drive… walking…think”**

The pills were starting to kick in.

**“What did he say to you?”**

**“Wants me back… you…break heart… me”**

Gilbert did not say anything after that. Roy wants her back. He wants her back, but he cannot have her. Gilbert is not going to let him break Anne’s heart again, she does not deserve that. Royal is not good enough for her; actually, no one is good enough for her, but least of all Royal Gardner. He could disappear from their lives and would not be missed.

How Anne ended up dating him in the first place is still a mystery to Gilbert, she said he was good when they met, but in all the time he has known Royal not once he sensed the tiniest bit of goodness in him. He did look a lot happier and acted nicer when he was with Anne, but who in their right mind would want someone who treats everyone like shit like they are inferior. Thank fuck, Royal could not keep the façade and showed his true self in front of her. Not that he knows much from the day they broke up, Gilbert only knows Royal broke up with her, but he does not know the reason, and to be honest, he does not need the reason. Anne and Royal are not a thing anymore and that is all that matters.

Fucking Royal Gardner

How dare he say Gilbert would hurt her

He has to be on drugs or something. Gilbert would not hurt anyone, least of all, Anne. He loves her. Literally, the only good thing he has got in this stupid university… Moody has been with him for longer, so he does not count as a uni friend –he is just Moody, Gilbert’s… always friend?.

Gilbert has to talk to Royal. Should he though? Would Anne want that? Would it be wrong to talk to him? Fuck no, Anne is supposed to be his girlfriend, and there is this guy trying to get with her. He has to let everyone know she is his, everyone has to know- wow, what the fuck.

Anne is her own person. Gilbert does not own her…fuck.

He has to let everyone know they are a couple and that they belong to each other?

Yes, that.

He will let everyone know, yes. How though?

* * *

Gilbert always liked simple plans and this one was the simplest plan ever. He just needed to make sure everyone was there for the “announcement”. He was now in the kitchen with some of his brothers –Roy, Moody, Cole, and some others-. Anne had just left a couple of minutes earlier, giving him a quick kiss goodbye in front of everyone. After she left, Gilbert went back to his room with the excuse of getting his phone, and then started with the plan.

It was not long until one of the cleaning ladies –Jenny- came to the kitchen holding a black trash bag.

**“Mr. Blythe?”** Jenny said.

**“Yes?”**

She cleared her throat, **“You know the rules, Mr. Blythe. You have to… organize your… things”**

Gilbert faked embarrassment, **“Jenny, I-”**

**“No, no. Since it’s the first time something like this happens, I’ll just let it slide, here’s just stuff”** She handed him the trash bag, **“Next time, I’ll throw it away”** Jenny left the kitchen right after that.

Just like he planned, Moody took the bag from his hands and started going through the things there.

**“Moody, give it back!”** He said, angry. Wow, such a good actor.

**“OH MY GOD!”** Moody started laughing, **“Blythe-”**

**“Shut up!”** He groaned, **“Give it back. Give. It. Back** ” he tried to take it back, but he could not so he gave up.

**“What is it?!”** Cole asked, running to his side. Moody took out a box from the bag and Cole gasped, **“Extra-large condoms”** he read, turning to look at Gilbert’s crotch.

Moody took another thing out, laughing, “ **Handcuffs!”**

Gilbert groaned, covering his face with his hands, embarrassed. **“Stop”**

**“Blythe you have a lot of stuff here,”** Moody said, the smile clear in his voice, **“strawberry-flavored lube, eye mask, whipped cream… what’s this?”**

**“That’s a butt plug”** Cole responded, laughing **“I can’t believe Anne didn’t tell me she was into that”**

**“Why would she tell you?”** Gilbert asked, finally dropped his hands.

**“She tells me everything”**

Great.

Now he has to tell Anne what he did so she would not deny anything if Cole asked her

**“Everything?!”**

**“Relax, Blythe. She already told me about that time little Gilbert didn’t want to cooperate and how nervous you got, she thinks it’s cute by the way”** Cole said, making Moody and some of the boys laugh.

Gilbert blushed, it was all a big lie, but still, it was embarrassing. He just noticed after all this that Royal had not said a word the entire time, and when Gilbert turned to look at him, he was not there anymore.

* * *

**Blythe**

We’re into handcuffs and eye masks

Strawberry lube and whipped cream too

And butt plugs

Also, I use extra-large condoms

AND BY THE WAY

Little Gilbert ALWAYS cooperates

So fuck you

**Red**

What the fuck are you talking about?

* * *

Gilbert did not reply to her text so Anne did not know what he was saying. It was not until later that day that she found out.

**“YOU NASTY BITCH!”** Cole shouted, coming into her room without even bothering to knock.

**“What?”**

**“HOW COULD YOU NOT TELL ME?”**

**“Tell you what?”**

**“That you’re into handcuffs and butt plugs??? Also, whip cream, Anne? Really?”**

Now all those messages started to make sense, she was not sure how to continue so she just shrugged and turned back to her work.

**“You have to tell me!”**

**“How did you even found out anyway?”**

**“Cleaning lady found it and called Gilbert out in front of everyone, it was amazing** ” Cole laughed, **“and don’t change the subject!”** Anne sighed, rolling her eyes, **“Since when are you into that stuff?! You certainly didn’t do anything like that with Roy”**

**“I don’t know”** she really did not know, **“it’s different with Gilbert, he’s-”**

**“You trust him”** Cole smiled, knowingly.

**“Yeah,”** Anne breathed.

She did trust him, but suddenly something came to her. Why did he have all that stuff? He clearly was not using any of it with her. He must be sleeping with someone and clearly, the person slept at the fraternity if the cleaning ladies found that. He cannot do stuff like that. If someone finds out, their plan is fucked. That is the only reason she is worried, not because of that weird feeling she got when she started thinking about Gilbert sleeping with someone else, not else, just someone. Anne is not sleeping with him, so just someone…not someone else… just someone.

Someone.

* * *

**“We have two more things to discuss today”** Winifred started, **“Halloween and Christmas”**

**“Those two are literally two months away from each other”** Charlie said.

**“No shit, Sherlock!”** Roy rolled his eyes, **“Where throwing another party, a costume party for Halloween, and then we have to start planning the Christmas charity event. It usually takes months to plan that’s why we starting now”**

**“Exactly, Roy”** Winifred beamed, **“Now, Anne. Talk”**

Anne sighed, **“So, Halloween, like Roy said, and like every year, it’s going to be a costume party, but these year we are going to add a contest,” she started explaining, “there’s only one winner, it can be a group, a duo, or a single person, and they’re going to win a 500$, we are going to charge 20$ to everyone that wants to come, and that’s how we’re going to collect the money for the prize, we’re expecting around 100 people to come so that would be two thousand dollars in total, the rest will be used to plan the Christmas charity event. Also, we have some rules, if any of us, I mean people from** **ΓΨΑ** **or** **ΛΨ** **, win the prize we have to give it to charity because we technically didn’t pay anything to attend. If an outsider wins, the prize is theirs obviously. We need to find three judges for the contest, none of us can be one so it’s fair… I think that’s it for Halloween. Um, yeah, Moody?”**

**“Ok,”** Moody nodded, looking through his notes. **“As Anne said, the extra money from the party will be used to plan the charity event. We started looking for places to hold the event and we found this nice place people use for weddings, birthdays and stuff. It’s very nice and it’s in the center so a lot of people pass in front of it. We decided to change the donations a bit, we’re going to donate to just one place instead of three, so we can give more to them, we’ll change foundation every year so it’s fair. Last year we gave ten thousand dollars to: the children’s hospital, animal shelters, the food bank, and the Cameron Boyce foundation. So, this year we're going to give all the money to just one place, it can be one of those or another foundation”**

**“Cool, I think that’s a good idea… we should think of a new foundation or organization to help,”** Diana said, **“Any ideas?”**

**“We could… um”** Ruby started, fidgeting with her hands, **“we could donate to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation? I hear their president talking about it on the radio, they want to encourage and support Aboriginal people in their healing process, you know, this is all about the residential schools, we all know they were abused physically and sexually in those places so… yeah, I think it’s a good charity”**

**“I love it, Ruby”** Anne smiled, **“All in favor?”** she asked, everyone raised their hands. **“Ok, it’s settled, we’ll donate to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation!”**

**“How are we going to raise the money?”** Josie asked.

**“We’re auctioning people, like every year, Jo”** Winnie explained.

**“But we’re not prostitutes!”**

**“They’re sex workers, not prostitutes”** Gilbert corrected, **“Anyway, they don’t have to have sex with the person they… buy. Normally, they just go out on a date, some people just use the person as an assistant for the day. It’s nothing…sexual”**

**“Who are we auctioning this year?”** Cole asked, **“Do we have any volunteers?”**

**“Not yet,”** Moody responded, **“We haven’t made the flyers and stuff to let people know, we’ll start looking the week after Halloween, so we don’t mix anything up”**

**“Ok, good”** Gilbert nodded, **“I think that’s it, right?”** He looked at Winifred, who nodded, **“Well, see you in the next reunion”**

Everyone started to leave, Anne faster than all of them, trying to go up to her room quickly.

**“Hey, red!”** Gilbert called, running behind her **“Red! Red! Cherry! Anne!”**

**“What?”** Anne turned to look at him.

**“I wanted to- I- are you alright?”** He frowned.

**“I’m fine, I’m just tired, I wanna go to my room and sleep”** She sighed, rubbing her eyes with her hands.

**“Do you- can I come with you?”**

**“I really just want to sleep… and some me time,”**

**“Oh, um, ok…I’ll see you tomorrow?”**

**“Yeah, good night”**

**“Night”** he breathed. Gilbert started to leaving bumping into Roy on his way out.

**“Trouble in paradise, Blythe?”** Royal said, a smug smile on his face.

**“Fuck off”**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been too long, I know. I'm just going to summarize my last few months so you can understand.
> 
> 1\. lots of crying and anxiety. I lost two family members, one from covid and the other from cancer.  
> 2\. I started going to the therapist, it's been good so far.  
> 3\. I started my second year of university so I'm stressed.  
> (4. i knit Harry Styles' cardigan, you can see it on my twitter @gingerspirits if you want and maybe follow me there too)
> 
> Thank you for reading, please leave a comment and tell me if you're liking it. I'm literally just continuing this because a lot of lovely people on Wattpad told me they wanted to read more of my stories.
> 
> xoxo GingerSpirits.


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